The Defense Relied On California Procedural And Substantive Law At The Trial Court Level, Such That Invoking Hawaii Law Was Unfair Given The Settlement Agreement Had No Fee Clause.
McLaughlin v. Machen, Case No. H045869 (6th Dist. May 28, 2021) (unpublished) was an interesting choice of law case where plaintiffs lost certain claims against defendant based on California’s statute of limitations, with the defendant awarded $81,705 in attorney’s fees under Hawaii law (which has a statute allowing prevailing party fees for claims like the one raised) even though a prior settlement between the parties, with a Hawaii choice of law clause, had no express contractual fees provision.
The Sixth District reversed the fee award. It did so on unfairness grounds: the defense had relied on California procedural and substantive law, with Hawaii having a longer statute of limitations on the primary claim versus the shorter California limitations period which led the lower court to find the claims were time barred. This unfairness distinguished the situation from a somewhat similar fact pattern involving a Swiss choice of law clause in Applera Corp. v. MP Biomedicals, LLC, 173 Cal.App.4th 769 (2009), reinforced by the fact California law would not have allowed a fees award given the existence of no fees clause in the settlement agreement.
BLOG OBSERVATION AND KUDOS: As recently announced on the courts.ca.gov website, Justice Ikola—who authored Applera—is retiring from the 4/3 DCA bench effective July 1, 2021 (where he served for 18 ½ years) after a 47-year legal career including a prior seat on the Orange County Superior Court bench. Co-contributor Mike, who attended an OCBA seminar earlier this year, believes Justice Ikola will be retiring to Michigan. A little earlier, his colleague Justice Aronson was announced as retiring from the 4/3 DCA bench effective June 15, 2021 (where he served for about 20 years) after a 46-year legal career including a prior seat on the Orange County Superior Court bench, too. We wish them both well, and thank them for their service on the bench—co-contributor Mike has argued before them often over the years.
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